2006: the year the weather went balmy

Last year was the warmest across England since records began nearly 350 years ago. The average daily temperature, based on readings from a number of meteorological stations, was 10.9C (51.62F).

That bettered the previous warmest year on record, 1990, which had an average daily temperature of 10.67C (51.2F).

Gareth Harvey, a meteorologist from Meteogroup, said yesterday that was a new record "by a long way".

Mr Harvey said most of the forecasts indicated that there would be an upward temperature trend over the next 10-15 years.

"But we cannot say whether one year is going to be hotter than another. No one can really forecast what is going to happen next year," he said.

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A cold spell last month could have prevented 2006 being the record year — but the weather remained mild.

Last year's mild weather had an effect across the country.

The chillers at Warwick Castle ice rink were unable to create ice, and at London's Natural History Museum the ice melted.

In Northumberland, farm workers were still picking fruit in November, and retailers reported sales of coats and winter clothes falling as the warm weather persisted.

In Siberia, the warm November weather meant polar bears were not ready to settle down for the winter. And in Europe ski resorts found it was too warm even for artificial snow.

Annual review

After three years of marking time, 2006 saw a renewed upward surge of warmth which began in May and continued until the end of the year. By contrast, the first four months were consistently rather cold with frequent overnight frosts, but January and February were both dry months and snow was once again in short supply in most parts of the country. The only disruptive snowfalls occurred in March when Scotland was badly hit. Arguably, the centrepiece of the year was the exceptionally hot July – the heat often accompanied by high humidity and a threat of thunderstorms – but, uncharacteristically, it was followed by a relatively cool and unsettled August. Most hot Julys in Britain are followed by hot Augusts. The warmth resumed in September and autumn was unprecedentedly warm, while December will be remembered for the widespread and persistent fog during the week before Christmas.

Temperatures

The low temperatures at the start of the year continued throughout March and April, and the first four months of 2006 were the coolest such grouping since 1996. The changeover happened during the first week of May: the temperature reached 21C (70F) for the first time on May 3, the latest date to reach this level for 23 years, and on May 4 the mercury climbed to 28C (82F), the earliest date to reach this level since 1995. August apart, records were approached in every single month thereafter. June was the warmest since 1976, July the equal-hottest in over three centuries of records, September also the equal-hottest on record, October ranked fourth-warmest, November was the warmest in some regions since 1994, and December the warmest since 1988. The Central England Temperature for the whole year was 10.9C, beating the previous record of 10.67C established in 1990 by a wide margin.

Rainfall

Although some hosepipe bans remained in force until the end of the year, the lengthy water shortage which had begun in November 2004 effectively ended in September. There had been scattered periods of wet weather earlier, notably in late March and in late May, but heavy rains returned to eastern and central regions in August, and to all parts of the country from September onwards, and Glasgow broke rainfall records in both November and December. At the end of July it looked as though 2006 was going to mount a challenge for some drought records but by the year’s end most regions had collected near or slightly above-average amounts of rain. Only south-west England and south Wales reported a significant rainfall deficit for the year as a whole.

Sunshine

July again took the honours as far as sunshine records were concerned, the aggregate sunshine during the month of 301 hours beating the previous July record set way back in 1911. Sunshine was plentiful throughout the year (only March and August were cloudier than average) in all eastern, central and southern parts of the UK, but annual sunshine totals were still well short of those logged during the record-breaking year of 2003. November was widely the sunniest on record, and in eastern Scotland and north-east England, December broke records too. By contrast, parts of western and northern Scotland ended up with a small deficit over the year.